A brand new documentary from German filmmakers offers an unglamorous look back at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's efforts to determine them as ultra-wealthy global influencers and philanthropists since leaving royal life nearly five years ago.
“Harry and Meghan have set the bar very high,” says Ulrike Grunewald, the director of “The Lost Prince.” said The Daily Mail over the weekend. The documentary is scheduled to air in Germany on Tuesday. “They want to be global benefactors who create tangible change. So far they have not lived up to this image at all.”
For the 45-minute film, Grunewald desired to explore whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex managed to “find freedom” by leaving the United Kingdom and moving to the United States. During their exit, the couple also vowed to turn out to be financially independent entrepreneurs and world-renowned thought leaders.
To answer questions on the couple's life after “Megxit,” Grunewald said she reported within the couple's latest hometown of Montecito, delved into the work of their Archewell Foundation and Harry's involvement within the Invictus Games, and examined recent reports, that they’re “separated” – not less than professionally.
“I was interested in whether Harry and Meghan’s strategies for independent living worked,” said Grunewald. “After four years, the results are very mixed.”
“Now they mostly appear separately because they have not managed to create a functioning image together,” said Grunewald. They got here to earth.”
On the one hand, Harry can have found a brand new sense of private freedom by leaving the confines of royal life.
“To be fair, from his perspective, Harry wanted the best for his own family,” Grunewald said. “And he has certainly now gained valuable experience in California and learned what it means to have to stand on his own two feet. He would never have been able to do that in the inner circle of the royal family.”
But Harry now has to determine for himself what he has to supply the world, said Grunewald. Sure, he still has “the glamour” in him, the son of King Charles III. and the late Princess Diana, said Grunewald. “But in the harsh atmosphere of the Hollywood industry,” that appeal can fade, she said.
Grunewald is probably going referring to the couple's difficulties becoming Hollywood media moguls. In late 2020, Harry and his wife, an American television actress, signed multimillion-dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify, saying they desired to create “impactful” content “that informs,” ”gives hope” and “triggers action.”
But in 2023, the couple famously parted ways with Spotify after Meghan only produced a 12-episode podcast and so they were branded “gribbers” by one among the platform's executives and star podcasters, Bill Simmons.
As for Netflix, they starred in “Harry and Meghan,” their 2022 blockbuster docuseries about their acrimonious departure from royal life. However, they increasingly lost public goodwill in each the United Kingdom and the United States because they felt that they had gone too far in publicly criticizing Harry's royal relatives within the documentary series and in interviews. While royal gossip lovers also made Harry's 2023 memoir “Spare” a worldwide bestseller, it also became clear that some people were uncomfortable with Harry's decision to disclose family secrets.
“People have long memories and few revelations can damage their image more than the private details that Harry and Meghan themselves have made public in recent years,” said Grunewald.
Things have now gone “a little downhill” with their Netflix partnership. The Times UK also reported. Harry's documentary about his work on the Invictus Games didn't make Netflix's top 10, and there's still no sign of Meghan's Netflix cooking show, which was reportedly accomplished in the summertime.
Next week, Netflix will release “Polo,” a documentary series produced by the co-director couple. But neither Harry nor Meghan appear within the series, which is about an elite sport that almost all people probably don't care about. The trailer also attempts to market the documentary as a Bravo-esque reality TV show about “dirty, sweaty boys…horseback riding” – hardly “influential” content that “gives hope” and “unlocks action.”
Former British friends of Harry were reportedly “horrified in hysterics” over the “tasteless” latest series, while a Hollywood executive warned that the couple are “running out of last chances” to prove they’ll make compelling TV shows by which it’s isn’t about herself. the Daily Beast reported.
The Daily Mail preview of the brand new German documentary doesn’t address whether it is going to consider Meghan's other business ventures, including the premiere of her Netflix cooking show, which could coincide with the launch of her latest lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. But Meghan's company has been the topic of diverse reports of bureaucratic difficulties with the U.S. trademark office and questions on whether she has the business savvy to get her strawberry jam and other products ready on the market.
According to The Lost Prince, Harry and Meghan may be struggling in other areas of their lives post-Megxit.
For one thing, the couple doesn't appear to have “integrated” into Montecito's elite social circles, Grunewald told the Daily Mail.
“Cultural life is very lively, but everything often takes place in closed circles and Harry and Meghan rarely take part in these activities,” said Grunewald. “They seem to have become very isolated.”
Over the past 4 years, Harry and Meghan have appeared together and individually at some high-profile events in and around Montecito and Santa Barbara. In 2023, for instance, they attended Kevin Costner's annual star-studded fundraiser for local first responders at his estate near Santa Barbara.
They recently appeared on the September opening of a brand new bookstore near their Montecito home owned by famed literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and cosmetics mogul Victoria Jackson, who’s reportedly a great friend of Meghan's. Her Montecito neighbors, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, also joined the party, although DeGeneres recently left California for a brand new home within the United Kingdom
Still, Grunewald's documentary suggests that Harry and Meghan don't spend much time in Montecito. A neighbor, Richard Mineards, told Grunewald that the couple didn’t plan to “put down particularly deep roots” in the realm. Every from time to time you see them on the local market or on walks – all the time with security guards in tow.
“Sometimes you see her at the farmers market or with a dog, but generally you don't see her and you just don't see much of him,” Mineards said.
As for the Archewell Foundation, Grunewald argues that the nonprofit, which launched to great fanfare in 2020, doesn’t seem like organized effectively, while the Invictus Games seem like a brilliant spot within the couple's portfolio – even when the filmmaker does said Harry is little greater than “a figurehead.”
Harry founded the International Sports Competition for Wounded Veterans and Military Personnel. Jack Royston, Newsweek's royal reporter, is reportedly interviewed for “The Lost Prince” and says: “I believe that Invictus is a genuine and authentic work. “Harry is fully committed to the topic.”
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